Reynaldo Lopez just doesn’t make it easy for himself on the mound.
But he seems to thrive on putting himself under pressure.
The righthander loaded the bases with two walks and a hit in the first inning of today’s tilt against the Arizona Diamondbacks, but got away unscathed.
In the second, Lopez got two quick outs, but issued a walk and gave up a hit before getting Chris Owings to fly out to center.
Lopez then retired the next six hitters, on a majority of fly outs.
Lopez still did not have great control of his pitches, but he threw strikes when he really needed to. He ended the day going 4 ⅓ innings, giving up three hits and two walks while striking out two. Not bad, overall.
Lopez still needs to find comfort with his offspeed pitches and mid-to-upper 90s fastball, but his 0.96 spring ERA sure looks good.